Diet Plan
Suggested Eating Plan
Any change you make needs to be something that you can do for the rest
of your life. I recommend the following plan for most people in this
part of the country. (Ask for the “DNA” to find out your body’s exact
needs). Expect to lose 1/4 to 1 pound a month (4 to 12 pounds a year) if
you do NOT exercise, and 1 to 4 pounds a month (12 to 48 pounds a year)
if you do exercise as well! You do not have to do everything on this
list to succeed, but remember the more things you do the better and
faster your success. Remember that you are making changes for life, not
to just lose pounds! You are allowed to eat anything you want in any way
you want up to two times per month, you decide which two but ONLY two
times per month.
Water ~ Drink sufficient amount (1oz per 2 pounds of body weight. Example ~ 180lb person should drink minimum of 90oz per day). I recommend you drink filtered water… a simple charcoal filter on the kitchen tap is fine, as this is an easy way to eliminate most toxins. And, MEASURE the amount of water you consume each day…this is the only way to guarantee you drink enough!
You will feel better, lose weight faster and be healthier if you are
drinking ample water. Drink WATER ONLY between meals and snacks—NEVER soda, coffee, juice, tea or anything else! (Drink these others only with meals!)
Protein ~ Eat protein (meat, fish, eggs, cheese or nuts) with every meal
and every snack. Try to have as lean / low fat animal protein as you can
but if you can’t do the best job, it is better to have a little too much
fat than not enough protein in order to lose weight. If you have high
triglycerides discuss this with me.
Carbohydrates ~ Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta/noodles, cereal, chips,
corn, peas, cooked carrots. Eat any that you want, but only with protein
AND eat 1/2 as much as you normally would!
Vegetables ~ Eat a variety of veggies… raw is the best way (carrots,
broccoli, cauliflower, greens, etc.) or lightly steamed. Corn, peas and
potatoes are extremely starchy, eat tiny portions of these and remember
ONLY in balance with protein. Read labels on salad dressings, many have
LARGE amounts of sugar and fats. If you have favorite foods that you
can’t give up discuss “glycemic Indexing” with us.
Fiber ~ Make changes in your eating habits to include more fiber—eat
wheat bread instead of white, buy brown rice in place of white rice,
etc. In addition, get Wheat Bran or Oat Bran capsules from a health food
store or pharmacy. Take one with a glass of water just before each meal.
Fiber will not work without water. Fiber will fill you up faster, and
will help your body process out the fat from your diet. Helps eliminate
both constipation and diarrhea.
Don’t Skip Meals ~ Skipping meals causes weight gain! You do not have to
eat a lot but you need to be satisfied in order to be able to keep this
up for life. The stomach is a very dumb organ. It takes almost 5 minutes
for the signal “I’m full” to get from the stomach to the brain. If you
have trouble eating too fast, serve your food, divide it into 4 equal
sections, and eat one. Wait 5 minutes, and if you are still hungry, eat
the second. Continue this until you are full 5 minutes after finishing a
section. Most people will feel full after the 3rd section.
Sugar ~ Remove from your diet as much as possible. White sugar is a
single molecule sugar and goes straight to the blood. This does not
exist in nature and your body is not designed to handle this. Even pure
sweets like honey or fruit sugar are 2 molecule sugars. Never have
anything sweet as a snack, but only as a dessert at the end of a meal.
If you have a bad sweet tooth, try using honey (twice as sweet, so you
only use half as much) and slowly cut down on how much you use (half of
all the sweet taste is learned, if you SLOWLY cut down everything will
taste just as sweet until you get to about HALF the ‘normal’ amount of
sweetener in it.)
Diet Soda/Artificial Sweetener ~ These are NOT healthy to take, and
evidence suggests that they cause weight gain and are habit forming.
Exercise ~ This is the only safe way to increase the basic metabolic
rate, so that you burn more calories per hour every hour of the day and
night. You need 20 to 30 minutes of NON-STOP exercise or work at least 3
times each week. I do not recommend more than 30 minutes, or more than 5 times a week. This needs to be hard enough to get your heart rate up, as
hard as a good fast walk.
Weight Loss Products & Medications ~ There are many that will work but are too hard on your body to take for the rest of your life and when you quit you gain the weight back faster than you lost it! And, you gain back more FAT than the muscle! There are a few safe effective options, please discuss these with us if you will not do enough of the above to achieve reasonable weight loss. If you do everything on this handout you WILL LOSE WEIGHT. (The only exceptions are with low thyroid or pre diabetes.)